1 AM
by mordeshakess
Summary: Mordecai calls Margaret from the dome in space.


Mordecai sat stooped over the ancient laptop, lit in a silvery light on the tiled floor; a feathery digit coasting the far edge of the thick monitor. The observation deck sat cloaked in a thick darkness. And in this room, sat a silence so overbearing, one might feel almost suffocated. The only sounds that could be heard were the occasional and methodical breathing coming from the Blue Jay, along with a few _bleeps_ and _bloops_ from surrounding machines.

Trenches of stars and buckets of nebulas all tiredly blinked all about Mordecai. The view the deck provided was absolutely stunning—but Mordecai had grown used to it by now. He sighed, and fought off sleep once more.

He had to see her again.

"…Hello?" An indistinct voice muttered from the machine, "Hi? Who is this? …And why are you calling me so late?"

Mordecai's heart raced, and he scrambled to grope the microphone to utter a greeting.

"I-I come in peace," He joked. "It's me, Mordecai. Sorry it's so late…I've kind of lost the concept of time in space and now seems to be the only time this PC can hold a signal…I hope you can still see me through the darkness, here."

Mordecai enlarged the chat window to full screen, and the red bird on the screen wearily rubbed her eyes. She smiled.

"Gosh, it's been too long, hasn't it?" Margaret yawned. "Sorry-"

"No! Don't apologize. I shouldn't have disturbed you in the first place…"

Margaret adjusted her webcam a bit, got up to turn on her lamp, and sat down at the desk again. She giggled a bit, looking away.

"Don't start off our first conversation in nearly a year with awkwardness. Don't pull a Mordecai," She said, playfully.

The Blue Jay blushed, and wondered if she could see that on her screen. Even though the deck was dark, and his picture was fuzzy, to an anxious Mordecai, it seemed extremely plausible. He timidly retreated further into the black, like a child hiding in the folds of their mother's skirt.

"You know I've missed you guys _so_ much since you've left. I can't have sleepovers with Eileen anymore, I can't do movie nights with you and the gang anymore. I miss it so much! Wow," Margaret giggled. "Saying all this out loud for once really woke me up."

"I can imagine. That kind of thing has been bothering me, too." The Blue Jay said quietly, staring out into the stars. He then looked back at her.

Mordecai could tell her Mac was set up by the window now. It wasn't like that before he had left earth. Occasionally, a car would pass by her window, and a streak of faint light would stretch across her thin frame—which in turn would make her tired brown eyes glimmer a bit-like amber.

"I'm sorry I—we—had to leave like that. The dome just up and left with us on it with little to no warning. But…you know that. It must suck to kind of be _alone_..." He trailed off anxiously. "Or have you been hanging out with new people? How's reporting been, cover any riveting stories?"

The Cardinal yawned again, and grinned, looking straight into him.

"Well, I convinced the station to do some weekly coverage on the dome's journey. So that's been fun. Although, my news station doesn't know anything about it, really. So they just go to me for new information. And I have no real way of contacting any of you obviously…so I just make up a bunch of stuff," She giggled. "I'm getting paid to fudge stuff! It helps me cope with this in a way, though. Just last week I said everyone on the dome was really into wearing hammer pants. On the air!"

Mordecai grinned.

"You're not too far off. Muscle Man's been very into that lately, oddly enough."

"So how are you um, you know, coping? If it's hard for me on earth to deal with this, I have to imagine it must be hard for you too, being on board the thing that actually left."

Mordecai looked outside the deck again, and feigned a smile. _How close to the Milky Way were they?_

"Hmm! Hmm! Just, ah, been not thinking about it much. It's been cool. Cool. Awesome. Space is so pretty!" Mordecai said, gritting his teeth into a smile so hard that they hurt. "Why don't I show you?"

A spark lit in Margaret's eyes.

Carefully maneuvering the weighty laptop on top of the deck, he positioned it just in front of a planet that resembled Venus.

"W..o-w" Margaret's signal began to flicker. "That's quite…planet…amazing."

The Blue Jay panicked, and quickly set the laptop back on the tiled floor. Her signal began to break further. It was no use, and tears began to pool in Mordecai's eyes.

"Margaret! I think our signal is failing," Mordecai said, attempting to sound as clear as possible. "I just wanna say, before you go…I-I…"

The computer blinked off in defeat.

"…miss you."


End file.
